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Florida – Gay Marriage Ban Strike Four

For the fourth time in 19 days, a South Florida judge has ruled against Florida’s gay marriage ban, this time in the probate case of a Pennsylvania widower whose husband died suddenly in Boynton Beach.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Diana Lewis on Tuesday ordered W. Jason Simpson should be personal representative in the estate of his husband, Frank Bangor, who died March 14. The two men, together 37 years, were married Oct. 23, 2013, in Delaware.

The Palm Beach case is the fourth in under three weeks to undermine Florida’s gay marriage ban.

On July 17, Monroe Chief Circuit Judge Luis Garcia ruled the ban unconstitutional and that Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones of Key West could marry.

Eight days later, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel ruled six same-sex couples in South Florida also had the right to marry. Those decisions are valid only in the judges’ respective counties, and both rulings have been put on hold pending appeals by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

On Monday, Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen ruled Florida must recognize and then dissolve the Vermont civil union of a lesbian whose partner left her four years ago. Bondi’s office hasn’t responded in that case.